Protective eff ect of abscisic Acid in a spinal cord injury model mediated by suppressed neuroinfl ammation

Abscisic acid (aba) is a phytohormone with modulatory roles. th e anti-infl ammatory eff ect of this hormone has been reported on diff erent animal tissues. immediately aft er spinal cord injury (sci), neuroinfl ammation causes neuropathic pain and locomotor impairments. we investigated the impacts of aba as an anti-infl ammatory substance on an acute sci model. th e weight-drop contusion injury model was applied for inducing sci in rats. th e solvent, aba (10, 15 μg/rat, it), and mp (30 mg/kg, ip) were administered aft er injury. for the evaluation of proinfl ammatory gene expression, a real-time polymerase chain reaction was applied for the two infl ammation markers tumor necrosis factor-α (tnf-α) and interleukin-1β (il-1β). moreover, the tail-fl ick and basso, beattie, bresnahan (bbb) tests were performed to determine the eff ects of aba on the neuropathic pain and locomotor function in the chronic phase of injury, respectively. our data showed that aba reduced the gene expression of tnf-α and il-1β in the spinal cord of injured rats. it also increased the latency response to nociceptive thermal stimuli and improved locomotor function. our fi ndings showed the anti-infl ammatory impacts of aba in improving neuropathic pain and locomotor functional recovery aft er sci.